I'm sure most people are aware of the scam of expensive "audiophile" cables by now, but just in case..
a friend has bought from "nordost" many years ago 5000$ LS cable via ebay. optically very nice, but from the sound logically no difference to the 30$ cable, which he had before. He was the only one who participated in the auction and had to pay only 250$. In my opinion, it was still 200$ too much.
What I'm willing to spend more for a cable:
- Gold-plated connectors
- Braided
- (optional) Looooooooooooooooong
Can justify three, maybe five times the average price for those things (much more if I'm looking for really weird lenghts, like one time I bought a 30ft HDMI cable for a project for $50). Anything more it's just stupid IMO.
- Gold-plated connectors
- Braided
- (optional) Looooooooooooooooong
Can justify three, maybe five times the average price for those things (much more if I'm looking for really weird lenghts, like one time I bought a 30ft HDMI cable for a project for $50). Anything more it's just stupid IMO.
Gold plating is preferred for connectors not because it's a good conductor, but because it doesn't oxidize, the connection stays good long term. It's a very thin layer, so it won't affect conductivity.
There's definitely some snake oily stuff out there.. I guess it all depends on your setup and what you want, looking for or lacking.. If you're unhappy or you want to improve on it, but you have only had some cheap cables up to that point, upgrading to better will definitely improve sound quality. How high? Is up to you and your budget, but i wouldn't trust anything above 300$ expecting it to magically improve on the sound of my setup, if i already got some well made cables that aren't nearly as expensive..
as long as the cross-section is not absurdly small, or the cable length extremely long, new cables will not measurably change the sound. on the other hand, the room geometry and placement of the speakers is important.
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